Sleep apnea is a disease characterized by temporary blocking of breathing during sleeping. This device can be used for obstructive apnea and mixed apnea. In obstructive apnea, ventilating effort is present but no air flow results because of upper airway closure. In mixed apnea, there is initially no ventilating effort, but obstructive sleep apnea pattern becomes evident when ventilator effort resumes. Hypopnea is a temporary decrease in inspiratory airflow that is out of propulsion to individual effort or metabolic needs. The terms sleep apnea and/or sleep disorder breathing may refer to hypopnea. Pursed-lip breathing has been confirmed to have benefit for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (“COPD”) patient. It has been found that pursed-lip breathing results in a reduction in respiratory rate and increase in tidal volume and an improvement of oxygen saturation. All of the effort contributes to a reduction in patient dyspnea. The pursed-lip breathing could hardly be trained without a device to help the users because when they fall asleep, they do not have conscious effort, thus the patient cannot breathe while the mouth is closed when sleeping.
The CPAP device is a standard method to treat the patients. However, it has its limitations:                Most patients cannot tolerate the mask and stop using the CPAP machine after a period of time.        The nose and facial mask leaks are a common issue.        Nasal congestion and dryness are common complaints.        A source of power is needed.        It is bulky and inconvenient when traveling.        
Expiratory resistance can provide clinical improvements when using pursed-lip breathing. On the contrary, inspiratory support is not shown to offer clinical benefits in many patients. It would be beneficial to have the pursed-lip training device to allow patients to do so during sleeping.
It is therefore the objective of the present invention to provide a pursed lip training device to allow for creation of positive pressure in constricted airways of a patient suffering from sleep apnea and/or other respiratory diseases. It is another objective of the present invention to provide a multiple-use device that has no mask to wear to treat sleep apnea.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a pursed-lip device to treat other diseases such as hypertension or heart failure.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a mouthpiece with a positive air pressure or reservoir to help the inhalation process.